ACICIS is very excited to announce Dr Elly Kent as the 2020 Creative Arts & Design Professional Practicum (CADPP) – Academic Program Officer (APO). Elly has been the APO for CADPP for the past two iterations of the program. She will be joining the ACICIS team up in Indonesia for the January-February 2020 program.

Elly is a translator, writer, artist and is currently a Visiting Fellow at The Australian National University’s Centre for Art History and Art Theory (CAHAT). Her research is focused on participatory art practice in Indonesia and how artists combine this with their individual practices; she also explores similar realms in her own art practice. Elly’s most recent publications include essays in the National Gallery of Australia’s catalogue to the exhibition Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia, The Asian Art Society of Australia Review and the Encyclopedia of Women in Islamic Cultures. Elly has lived and worked in Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia, throughout her life, and this has had an abiding effect on her outlook. She was the recipient of a Prime Minister’s Australia-Asia Postgraduate Award in 2012, and the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art’s emerging artist award in the same year.

The ACICIS Creative Arts & Design Professional Practicum (CADPP) offers students the opportunity to collaborate with Indonesian peers and creative practitioners and allows them to experience the vibrancy of contemporary Indonesian arts and cultural production. Students undertake a two week academic program, including intensive Indonesian language classes and industry seminars, followed by a supervised placement designed to give participants a professional experience within Indonesia’s creative industries.

An Academic Program Officer is assigned to each of ACICIS’ professional practicum programs to oversee all aspects of a program, including the supervision of its academic content and assessment of student performance. The APO and ACICIS Resident Director oversee application vetting, participant selection, and work placement allocation. During the program in Indonesia, the APO meets regularly with a student’s Host Organisation placement supervisor – and with the student themselves – to provide mentorship, to ensure that a student is getting the most out of their placement, and to assess a student’s performance. The APO provides students with advice on academic and industry-specific matters, and offers pastoral care and emergency assistance where necessary. The APO also plays a key role in curating and delivering the series of industry seminars that students undertake in the first two weeks of their program.

ACICIS is delighted to welcome Elly back as the supervising academic for the 2020 CADPP. Participating students will be extremely well served by Elly’s experience, expertise and infectious enthusiasm for building ties between Australia and Indonesia through the medium of art, design and culture.